World Marathon Swimming Day

Nothing great is easy. -- inscription on the memorial to Captain Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel

 A group I participate in, the Marathon Swimmers Forum, has declared today World Marathon Swimming Day.  In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb swam the English Channel.

I could say I did an open water swim today to commemorate that, but honestly, I'd already planned to do it.  That isn't to say that I didn't think about it today.

This particular swim is rough on me in a way other swims aren't.  I'm always last in this crew.  Always.

I hate being last every single damn time.  Sure sure, you can say the whole "dead last is better than did not finish" or other platitudes, and it's not that they're wrong.  There is some level of nobility in never, ever quitting.

But sometimes that's also a cold comfort.

Spotters, Sharks and Swimming in the Ocean

My family did their weekly Beach Week last week.  As always, we had a great time.

For some years I'd been meaning to try to swim from Rudee Inlet to the Pier (or vice versa depending on the current.  Yes, I'm a wuss)

It turned out, you kinda can't do that and obey the Safety Rules of the Beach.  They've extended the surfing area to 5th Street near Rudee Inlet. *shrug*

For that matter, I didn't swim all the way to the Pier, either.  People fish from that.  Forget the bait drawing larger animals that might take a chunk out of me. Have you ever had to cut a fishook out of your flesh?  I'll take reasonable precautions to avoid that, thanks! So, what I thought was going to be close to a mile swim was about half that.  Yes, baby swim.  Laugh it up.

I was going to do the swim the minute my husband got to the beach, and have him be my spotter on the shore.  That might have been a safety overkill, since I was swimming less than 25 yards from shore and in water that was never more than neck deep.  But anyway, I wanted a spotter and I really wanted my husband.  He's familiar with my swimming style and would be able to spot quickly in the unlikely event I got in trouble.

As it turned out, his knee was giving him enough trouble that while he was willing to walk on shore as my spotter, I was not willing for him to do it.  So, for the first swim, my son was my spotter. The second swim, which I hadn't entirely planned to do, my father was my spotter.  (He seemed so eager to do so. I think he just wanted to see me swim)

I found out several things during these swims.

I found out swimming through swells is pretty fun and comfortable.  While I'd picked moderately calm days to swim, it wasn't exactly Lake Atlantic (a term my family uses to gripe when the waves aren't big enough to body surf).  That actually surprised me.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm a very experienced body surfer and have been playing in waves quite literally since before I could walk.  I just figured that the waves would be an irritant and difficultly for proper forward motion doing the crawl.

Nope.  Not at all.  Though I find I am very glad I'm good at bilateral breathing.   Made it easier to spot on shore and check for waves!

I'd been swimming exclusively in fresh water lately -- pools and lakes.  The extra buoyancy of salt water makes a significant difference in how I balanced in the water -- but it also was a speed assist.  Well, some.  There was another, more dramatic factor.

I broke a speed record on both swims by  an extraordinary amount (as in those 40 minute miles I've been grinding my teeth about).  Do I think there was an assist from the current?  Yeah, a whole bunch!  But it was still cool.

I also discovered something else.

After one of my swims, my brother asked me if was afraid of sharks.  My answer was a short and clipped, "Yep" before he started regaling me with stories of some great whites that have been tagged and go up and down the East Coast.  He even asked me if I ever look them up on the tracking website.

I do and I shouldn't.

I'm *really* scared of sharks.  I was swimming North, so every time I looked to my right, I kept peering down into the water to look for shapes.  Visibility wasn't great (never is there) and that made me even more uncomfortable.  I was swimming juuusst at the dropoff between shallow and deeper water and yes, I know enough about shark hunting patterns that it made me nervous -- especially with bull shark sightings being all over the Hampton Roads area news for the summer. It didn't help that I didn't see a lot of dolphins on that trip.

I did ask the lifeguard where they did their PT and when he said, "Right out there in the water." I figured it was a reasonable risk, gritted me teeth and did the swim.  Any sharks that were close to me (and statistically I know there were) were either not hungry, not human aggressive, or didn't see my shape as a prey silhouette.

It was very interesting to me that the part of the swims that were actually the hardest (and in reality they were totally easy swims) was my own imagination.

Serious Training* at Holly's River

I have a friend who lives on a small river.  It has a nice beach, and it's a fun place to spend a Sunday summer afternoon.  It's completely beautiful, quiet and private.  You almost never see other people around and it's just this lovely spot.

Bodies of water have personalities and quirks, and Holly's River is no exception.  There are parts where the current is gentle, and other areas where the current is quite strong.  There's a rock formation on one bank about three feet under the water where the current is pretty strong.  For some reason (I forget why) they call it The End of the World.  We make a game of approaching it from upstream, bracing ourselves on it for a bit against the strong current, then letting go and letting the current take us downstream.  Then we swim out of the strong part of the current, go back up a few yards and do it all over again.

You know, just the normal kind of fun people have playing in bodies of water and playing in the currents.

I got to thinking about those endless pools you sometimes see advertised and wondered if I could actually keep a steady enough pace to swim in the same place against a pretty fast current.  

That's harder than you'd think.  I managed to keep a steady pace measuring against a rock on the bank for a little bit before I lost interest then floated down to The End of the World and braced myself.

My friend, ever liking to challenge me, said, "Hey, let the current take you and see if you can swim back!"

The current is pretty strong at that spot, but hey, why not?  Not like it was really dangerous to try or anything. (Unless I inhaled water and cracked my head on a rock or something, mind, but I had people near me)

I did manage to make it, though it was hard and I was perfectly happy to let go and float back to the beach after I did it.   However, I did learn that to be able to do it, my form had to be really good.  You hear talk of getting a feel for the water, learning to grab new water, to push against it, and all of that.   When I was swimming against that current, I really started to grok what I'd been reading about.

Not that was why I was doing it.  It was fun.  I was playing.

I like playing in water with all its changing moods.   I consider it different from Serious Swimming but I think it's part of developing good swimming skill.  Yes, you need to practice in the pool with the drills and all.  I'd never say you don't.

But I think there is a lot said for playing just like a kid -- experimenting with what your body does in the water, and what the water does with your body.  Enjoying the sensations, but also doing the unrestricted goofing around and giving yourself little challenges to see what you can do in the face of the force that's so much stronger than you.  I am certain that a lot of my comfort levels in the water have much more to do with getting knocked around by waves at the beach and getting tossed off boats into the Potomac river than ever it did with formal lessons and the swim team.  I got over the whole "I can't see or touch the bottom" issue before I was ten.

Again, it's not that those formal lessons aren't necessary to the sport.  They absolutely are!  But I do wonder for people who are training for big water events if it really would help a lot of they'd get out into something other than still water and just play.   Bodysurf, swim against currents, let currents take you where they will, dive under waves, let a wave knock you over, play games holding your breath... all of that.

That theory isn't entirely out of left field, either. You often hear that children learn by play, and I think that's not entirely accurate.  I think people in general learn and expand their comfort zones with play, but I think that we adults get so serious and work-oriented with what we want to do that we forget how valuable the play part is.  I see it in my classes a lot. I teach software, and people come in all anxious and focused.  I try to break down that focus and reserve with jokes and goofy exercises.  I don't do it to be a comedian or an entertainer, but do it because I feel like when a person is laughing and engaged (you know, playing) they're most open to learning.


_________________
* I totally wasn't training.  It was play.

I Have Come to a Decision

I got in the pool today after several weeks of being out of it.  No, it wasn't that I wasn't swimming.  It's that I was swimming in lakes.

So, some thoughts.

Swimming in a pool is a LOT easier.  I mean a LOT easier.  Lane lines, clear water and not having to sight make a significant difference. Fear of sharks and orca and huge anaconda easier to make fun of.  (Hey, when you can't see the bottom...  I know there are none of those things in a New England lake, but I have an excellent imagination!)

It's also too confounded hot.  And honestly?  Not as much fun.

I mean, I get out of a <65F lake red in the face after a swim.  What do you think it looks like in a 78F pool?  I took a cold shower after my workout this morning because my normal warm shower was uncomfortable.  Even so, I was wishing I had a more extensive makeup kit than I'd bring to the pool to cover my way too rosy cheeks when getting ready for work.

I like swimming in the lakes better.  Part of it is just that I live in New England.  It's just so confounded pretty swimming in a lake.  Part of it is the nifty factor.  It feels more adventurous, even though as far as open water swimming goes in a lake, my worst dangers are not checking in about water quality or an idiot on a jetski.  Seriously, jetskiers?  If you see a kayaker and they're waving at you, give 'em a wide berth. They may be escorting a swimmer.

But, oh Slow Swimmer, I hear you ask, how is this a decision?  Surely you, who make her living with words, know the difference between a decision and an observation.

Indeed I do.

My decision?

I'm training for a six mile swim for next summer.

Is this crazy?  Well, yeah, it kinda is.  That last event I did?  I swam a bit under a mile an hour.  There's no way they're gonna sit around for six hours waiting for me to finish that swim.  I am going to have to speed up by a rather silly percentage and it's possible I physically can't.  I think that's unlikely.  I wasn't pushing myself hard in the Kingdom Swim.  I was swimming to finish, not to be fast.

I see no real down side to trying, mind. I know what kind of training I'll need to do.  And I will have to throw in some *shudder* dryland work.  Okay, that's not fair.  I like weight training, which is what I intend to do.  I've just been avoiding it in favor of swimming.  But I'm about as strong as I can reasonably get from being in the pool and need to do something else.  Besides, swimming might be great for the CV system, but it doesn't do much for maintaining bone density.  Fortunately, squats are my favorite lift.

I am going to be starting with shorter, much more intense workouts and then bumping up the volume as I can tolerate more intensity for longer distances.

But last year I was going from no real exercise for two years to training for a two mile swim. I have a year of working out to build on, so I think it will go okay.

The other thing I gotta do?

Get rid of the breast stroke.  It's far too slow.  Oh, it's strong and I get there, but there's a reason in the Freestyle event people use the front crawl. It's astronomically faster.  Shoot, even I am about 35sec/100yds faster doing crawl than breast stroke!   I do a lot of breast stroke in the open water because my sighting skills are poor(and I often disagree with my kayaker about what constitutes a straight line to an object), so yes, that needs work as well.  So, part of my swim training is going to be tapering off using it.  Dammit.  I like the stroke. Sorry Cap'n Webb...

So, I have a hard year of training in front of me. But I've discovered something else.  If I commit money to an event, I will train to ensure I can perform in that event.  This keeps me going and training much more effectively than the idea that I have to exercise to stay healthy.  So, big physical goals that require the financial commitment of the event work well to keep me going.  I do hope that at some point I'll be so committed to swimming I won't need that, but I'm not there yet.

You Have Great Endurance!

My husband was bragging on me at work the other day, which was sweet.  He told me one of his co-workers commented that I must have amazing endurance, because she gets winded swimming two laps of the pool.

People do look at the middle-aged woman given to serious enbonpoint, watch her swim for an hour in a pool or around a lake and they do express they're impressed, especially when they compare it to their own swimming skill.

Here's the thing.  If you don't have a lot of practice swimming, just jump in the pool and go, you'll be hanging on the edge gasping, staring at the fat lady in the next lane just gliding along, and wondering if she's a freak of nature or something.

She might be, but she's probably not.

Swimming is about technique. The better your technique, the easier it is, and the more effortless it looks.  My own husband will comment after I have been working very hard in the water that I make it look easy.

But there's a flip side.  I'm the barest beginner at this sort of thing, and I'm really not that fast or strong.  Sure, sure, I'm strong enough to swim a couple of miles and that's cool.  But it takes me close on to two hours to do it.

The common wisdom is a 4:1 conversion between running and swimming, so using that calculation, my best swimming pace over an hour is slightly under a 12 minute mile and my Kingdom Swim was more like 15 minute miles.

That's a brisk walk, friends.  Not as impressive as all that.

It's a Dialog, Not a Fight

I'm sitting here right now using a website called 750Words.

The idea behind it is that you do a freewrite every day of seven hundred fifty words.  That's more or less three pages of material, and is based on the Morning Pages idea Julia Cameron talks about in The Artist's Way.

I've never read it *blush* but I do like the idea of daily practice.  I've been using the site for a few years now, and try to write that seven hundred fifty words every day to keep my writing skills sharp.  Yes, practice is important in any endeavor if you want to gain mastery!  (Can't tell I am a teacher, can you?)

Because I do try to come up with seven hundred fifty words a day and I'd rather it be on a subject rather than random drivel about how HARD it is to come up with a topic every day, I do make mental notes about what to write.

As I was thinking this morning and deciding on what I wanted to ramble on about today, I was struck by some language that is often used when talking about marathon swims.  They're words of conquest and winning against bodies of water.

That kind of language is a speed bump to me.  I love water.  I have loved water my entire life.   My parents tell me a story of when I was a young toddler and the family was staying at the Halifax in Virginia Beach.  My grandmother (I called her Nanny) and I were at the water's edge.  Nanny was sitting in the sand holding me and I was splashing in the waves that washed up over her legs.

Then an unexpectedly large wave hit that knocked Nanny and I down.  She had good reflexes and was able to keep hold of me, as well as keep my head above water until the wave receded.   Even though I am sure that scared Nanny quite badly, I am told she treated it as a fun adventure for us rather than something to be afraid of.

Even now, older than Nanny was then and of quite matronly proportions, I still get out in the waves for family Beach Week and body surf with my dad and brother.

But what I have been taught from early childhood is that water is the ultimate power.  That water is bigger and stronger than any human.  (Daddy used to whip impromptu physics lessons on my brother and I when we were body surfing to prove this WITH SCIENCE.)  That the best way to deal is to show water lots and lots of respect.  That no, getting out on the water isn't the safest thing you can do, but if you show the water that respect, you'll do better.

I suppose it's like John Blackthorne said in Shogun.  "The man who's not afraid of the sea'll soon be drownded for he'll go out on a day he shouldn't.  We be afraid of the sea, so we be only drownded now and again."  (Remember, in the early 17th Century, "fear" and "respect" had closer connotations than it does in 21st Century English -- see the King James translation of the Bible against other more modern translations.  I'm not sure if Clavell was intending to be that subtle, though.  As a writer, he generally wasn't)

It's not that I don't get where they're coming from when they say they've "conquered" the English Channel or something.  It's the challenge that's really being spoken of and that is certainly an amazing victory.  I wouldn't even say it's a bad way to look at it.  It's just alien to the way I think of it.

For me, it's a more intimate thing, and less about conquering the water and more about the interaction and communication with the water.  It's dancing together, or a sparring match.  If you don't think a sparring match can be intimate communication, all I can say is you really REALLY need to watch a scene in Pacific Rim!  They got it better than I've ever seen it portrayed in film. And the idea of the serious disparity in strength isn't weird to me in this.  I'm five two and female.  MOST of my sparring partners in training were a lot bigger and stronger than I am.

I guess I feel like it's more that the body of water allows you to swim it -- if you CAN.  You have to train and gain the ability.  Then, on your particular day to do the swim, the water decides if it's going to allow it that day.  It might throw challenges your way, sure.    It might test your training.  It may humble your arrogance.

It's why for me the language of conquest doesn't work.  At least not in terms of the water as an adversary.

Back to Training

I took a few days off from swimming after the Son of a Swim, but got back in the water today.

I admit it, I wanted to enjoy the "Hey, woah, I did it!" for a little longer before I started critiquing the swimming.  'Cause there was a lot to critique.

My next swim is going to be the Boston Sharkfest.  I'm intimidated about this one because it's actually a RACE where people are gonna be all competitive and stuff and be wearing expensive wetsuits and kick other swimmers and swim over them and all that nonsense.  I'm just not gonna look like I belong in this crowd.

I'm going to admit something right here.  I don't give much of a rip how fast I go as long as I can complete the swim in the time allotted.  I think they give you the shepherd's crook at  fifty minutes, which is pretty ample for a 1500 meter race, and even I can do better than that in a pool.  My open water skills, however, aren't so hot and I keep falling back to breastroke for sighting.  So, I'm buckling down in my training and have quit screwing around with so much breastroke in favor of you know, like swimming the crawl as fast as I can for intervals.

Intervals in the open water, at least the way I am doing it, seem to involve a lot of counting.   So, I'll swim 100 strokes as hard as I can, catch my breath for a bit, then swim as hard as I can again... lather rinse and repeat for a mile or so.   It's not scientific, but it'll get my speed up.

Since I really don't give a damn about competing, why did I sign up?

Mostly at the time I thought it would be a great open water challenge that I could reasonably train for in a year's time.  At the time I started up, I hadn't done any real working out for nearly two years and was in terrible shape.  1500 meters seemed like a reasonable challenge I could train for.

Yes, I did sign up for this in ignorance.  Perhaps it will be fun, but I admit that swimming in a crowd of people who have just GOT to win? After I read all the descriptions of what open water races look like, I'm not so sure about the fun part. I don't mind training hard, but I do like the pristine semi-solitude of the lake swimming I've been doing.

Again, I'm competing against me yesterday.   I want to swim from the King Neptune Statue to the 14th Street Pier in VA Beach.  Maybe even throw in 14th Street Pier to Rudee Inlet for dessert.  (These swims hover around a mile, but the surf will be a fun challenge) Next year, I want to do a longer swim at Son of a Swim -- the four or six mile.

Oh yeah, and Alcatraz.   Need to start planning that one for 2016.

The challenges are about challenging me, not a competitor.  And I'm okay with that.